“With regard to the Nintendo sensor, at that time we were trying to start this company that would use pulse sensors, but not just to measure pulse rate – that doesn’t tell you too much. You have to be more sophisticated than that if you want to measure things thing arousal, valance or a range of emotions using heart-rate variability. I don’t think Nintendo really knew what to do with that.”

– Neuro-technology Professor Roger Quy

I’m not entirely sure I’d agree with Quy on this one. I think he’s right that only measuring heart-rate isn’t terribly useful, but I’d imagine that many people would have also said that only measuring weight distribution wouldn’t be very useful for a fitness game, and look at well Wii Fit did! I think the real issue is that Nintendo was deciding exactly where to go with Wii and DS, the Wii U was conceptualizing at that time, and bigger fish needed to be fried. They probably just decided it wasn’t worth the effort to put out another peripheral.

Via Nintendo Life

NPD survey finds an increase in gaming overall, over half of gamers prefer buying physical media to digital

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

NPD’s yearly “Online Gaming Report” has come out today, detailing for us the many habits of those gamers who play games online, what they’re playing, how much they’re playing, and how they like to play. Here’s the breakdown:

– 72% of gamers in the U.S. play online, up 5% over last year
– Hours-played-per-week is up 9% overall, 6% for online gaming
– People are playing games more often, for longer across “virtually every type of device”
– PC is the top platform for online gaming
– Online gaming through PC is shrinking, while online gaming through mobile devices is growing
– 62% of gamers prefer buying physical games to digital
– Survey questioned 8,867 people ages 2 and older

Via Gamespot

Famicom designer talks about the effect of limited specs on player imaginations

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

It is something often ignored by game designers today: “Bad” graphics can actually be a good thing for a game world, allowing players to stretch their imaginations and feel more involved with the world than they would with every last detailed rendered out for them. In an interview with Shunpure news, Famicom “creator” Masayuki Uemura touched on that sentiment himself:

“With our limited specs, it was a lot of hard work to make a machine with clumsy graphics compared to today’s systems. However, this gave room for the player’s imagination to roam. With the Famicom, each player has their own view of the game’s world, creating a deeper universe.”

– Famicom designer Masayuki Uemura

It’s a sentiment I could not agree with more, and something I’m very sad to see leaving the gaming industry as we move forward. Indie games are, thankfully, bringing the concept back perhaps without even knowing it, but to no longer see a game that feels as atmospheric and imaginative as The Legend of Zelda from a big-name developer will be a sad event indeed.

Via EscapistMagazine

Nintendo says there’s a big advertising push for Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D in the UK, want “everyone” to know that DK is back

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

“Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is yet another huge release in 2013 for Nintendo 3DS. Retro Studios has done an incredible job of replicating the classic gameplay of previous Donkey Kong titles on Super Nintendo, whilst at the same time bringing them up to date and adding many new twists and turns.

“Donkey Kong titles have always been enjoyed by all ages for generations and we expect this one to be no different.”

– Nintendo UK product manager, Roger Langford

It’s interesting: Initially this sounds like regular old PR talk, but if you think about it, Donkey Kong isn’t really the character that’s in the forefront of people’s minds when it comes to Nintendo. Any kid who’s thinking about Donkey Kong probably has a reference point of something like Smash Bros. or (even less likely) Donkey Kong in arcades or on the Wii virtual console. Most people don’t know that the ape has starred in some of the best platformers of our time, and I think that’s definitely worth spreading the word about!

Via MCVUK

The Guardian (UK newspaper) criticizes violent videos games such as Animal Crossing, Wii Sports, and Mario Party

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Alas, the headline you read is not a joke. The popular UK newspaper ‘The Guardian’ published an article recently highlighting the games that were the top sellers of 2012 in the UK, and among the likes of Halo 4 and Black Ops 2 (which were brought up to illustrate a point about the content in best-selling games), they also allegedly mentioned some more family-friendly titles from the Big N. Here’s what the article tagged:

Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Mario Kart Wii were tagged as violent for “Comic Mischief”, Just Dance 3, Zumba Fitness, and Gran Turismo 5 were picked on for their “Lyrics”, Mario Party 9 and Kinect Sports were tagged as having “Cartoon Violence”, and Wii Sports was simply tagged with “Violence”. Note that I can’t access the actually article due to it being down for some reason, so all of this information comes from a third party.

I don’t think it’s news to anyone that certain newspapers or online outlets or TV stations don’t know the most about video games, and a lot of them have pretty bad preconceptions about the effects they have on people. No use lambasting them for the millionth time.

Via MCVUK

Former Nintendo designer discusses Famicom coloring and naming

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

The Famicom possessed an interesting color scheme. These days, we typically don’t see hardware that is covered in red, gold, and white colors.

Masayuki Uemura, a former Nintendo hardware designer, cleared up some misconceptions as to why the color scheme was chosen while speaking with Weekly Playboy:

“Originally, the inexpensive steel body we planned to use was too fragile, so we changed it to a highly durable plastic.”

Iwata talks about the struggle of budgeting HD games, selling full priced titles

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments

This is something that has becoming a huge worry for me regarding Nintendo lately. In recent months it has become increasingly apparent that the Big N vastly underestimated how much more work has to go into HD games compared to what they did on Wii, and as a result we’ve seen their game budgets going up, their games getting delayed, and consequently their Wii U console not selling. It’s somewhat troublesome, but what does Nintendo’s CEO and President have to say about the situation?

“These days it is becoming increasingly challenging to determine the minimum development resources required for customer satisfaction. The point I am trying to get across is that currently it is more challenging to sell packaged software for around $50-$60. It is true that it is becoming increasingly challenging to meet the expectations of consumers who are willing to pay $50-$60 for a game, and it is difficult to break even unless a huge number of units is sold all over the world, so it cannot be denied that software development is becoming more challenging.”

“Among such packaged software, however, the sales of popular games are much larger than in the past. Therefore, if we create more hit games, the software development business can still be very profitable. All games break even if they sell millions of copies worldwide, so we will continue to do our best to develop games which have high sales potential.”

– Nintendo President Satoru Iwata

Sometimes I wish Nintendo would just go back to make games with N64-level tech scaled up to HD instead of worrying about all of this modern mumbo jumbo. The concept that all games have to sell millions and millions of copies to break even is quite troubling, but hopefully Nintendo will continue to develop low-budget games like Sin and Punishment and Punch Out!! alongside the big titles.

Via Gamespot

EarthBound creator: new series installment “impossible”

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

EarthBound is kind of seeing a renaissance. Earlier this month, Nintendo announced that it would finally be re-releasing the game overseas through the Wii U Virtual Console after it originally launched close to two decades ago.

Let’s say EarthBound was a huge success on the eShop. Perhaps then a new entry would be possible, knowing that the series still has a big following worldwide.

Not so fast. EarthBound/Mother creator Shigesato Itoi, when asked about the possibility of a new installment, responded with just one word: “Impossible.”

Surely Nintendo can’t keep EarthBound/Mother dormant forever, right? Maybe one day we’ll see a complete revival, much in the same way that Kid Icarus came back after a 20-year hiatus.

Source, Via 1, Via 2

Iwata discusses recent downturn in video game industry

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

The video game industry has been in the slump over the past couple of years, Satoru Iwata has acknowledged. Some say that the US has specifically seen a downturn. Why is this so?

Iwata did offer two possible reasons during Nintendo’s most-recent financial results briefing Q&A.

First, Iwata commented on consumers’ “higher psychological hurdle to paying a certain sum of money for software.”

Iwata talks a bit about what overseas operations will change now that he has direct control

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s global president, is now the CEO of Nintendo of America. What will that mean for business operations overseas?

Speaking during Nintendo’s latest financial results briefing Q&A, Iwata provided some insight into the situation. There are plans to increase communications “with those working for our overseas subsidiaries” in order “to make their marketing strategies and tactics more aligned with the management decisions at the headquarters.” Iwata will additionally inform such employees “about the products under development on a more timely basis so that they can take advantage of the sales potential of such products in their business territories.”

I decided to refer to our plan to place our overseas operations under my direct control here because, in evaluating the notice regarding changes of directors, I thought that you might wonder who will replace the retiring general manager of the International Division and who will supervise our business in the U.S. after Mr. Kimishima, current chairperson and CEO of Nintendo of America Inc., comes back to Japan to replace Mr. Mori as a managing director.
I already communicate very frequently with those working for our overseas subsidiaries, but I will try to intensify the communications with them to make their marketing strategies and tactics more aligned with the management decisions at the headquarters. I will also inform them about the products under development on a more timely basis so that they can take advantage of the sales potential of such products in their business territories.

Source